Mercy for the Sun
by Great Gray Owl
Summary: "When both sides are merciless, why does it matter to you who wins?" My sister asked me that question once, but I didn't have an answer. Now my sister is gone, my family is in danger, and I need that answer.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

**Disclaimer**: _I don't own the Percy Jackson series. I'm merely practicing my writing partially with fanfics._

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_ I was at the edge of camp with my sister, my twin, in that space of time between night and day. We were arguing at the bottom of half-blood hill, on the border. We'd have gone over the hill, it was the quickest way out, but neither of us wanted to risk being seen by whoever was guarding the fleece that night. I tried to understand why she was leaving, and tried to convince her not to. She tried to understand why I was staying, and tried to convince me not to._

_ "Sybelle, please! At least tell me why?" I pleaded, hoping that she would give me something I could argue against. Praying she would change her mind and stay after all. Maybe I should have known that the gods had better things to do than listen to the desperate prayer of a frightened and confused child. We'd been arguing for days and I was running out of arguments._

_"Because the gods are merciless." She replied. I couldn't understand how she was staying so calm when I felt like I was being ripped in two. Part of me wanted so badly to go with her, if only so that we wouldn't be fighting against each other. But there was another part of me, apparently stronger, that said I had to stay. That there was something here worth fighting for, some reason that the gods were still worth defending… Even if I didn't know what that reason was._

_"You don't believe that." I said, though I knew she did. I did too. "In any case, the Titans are just as bad, if not worse!" Surely that was it, the reason I couldn't go… The Titans were worse than the gods. I was simply choosing the lesser of two evils. But if that was the case why wouldn't I choose my sister over either of them? If I was only choosing between two evils, why did it matter so much?_

_Sybelle shook her head, looking at me with this patiently frustrated look. "When both sides are merciless, why does it matter to you who wins?" she asked. I wonder if she even realized that she echoed my thoughts nearly perfectly._

_And I was still there, trying to figure out the answer, long after she left to join Luke's army. After she left me alone at camp to face the accusing looks of those who would never believe I wasn't siding with my sister as I'd always done before._

_Suddenly Sybelle was back, staring at me with eyes darker than I knew them to be. She was dressed differently too, wearing armor like we were about to go into battle. I knew then I was dreaming, because when Sybelle left camp she never looked back._

_"Be careful Cassie, he's baiting the trap…"_

_Just as I was about to ask what she meant I realized that I was no longer standing at the bottom of half-blood hill, but in the middle of the Olympian throne room. _

_ That is a really huge room by the way; you'd think it would be easy not to look at anyone with only ten other people in a room that massive. But when the people you're trying to avoid seeing are roughly twenty feet tall, the room gets smaller fast. Oh, it's still huge, just not as insanely huge. The fact that all those twenty-foot-tall people were staring at me also made it harder not to look back at them. But I don't think anyone would want to see ten angry gods, especially if they happened to be angry at you._

_ I stood in the center of the throne room, determinedly staring at the floor to avoid seeing them. I didn't want to see the faint pain etched into Hermes' features or the look of disgust from Ares. I couldn't bear the thought of Athena's cold scrutiny or the angry disappointment Dionysus was barely even trying to hide behind his customary look of boredom. Have I mentioned how shiny and reflective the floor is? No? Well, it's very shiny and reflective. So reflective in fact, that staring at the floor to avoid seeing them doesn't really work. They're all reflected with terrifying clarity._

_ Even worse, the two empty thrones were reflected too. And though I wasn't sure what had happened I somehow knew that the two missing Olympians, the only ones who might have spoken in my defense, were gone because of me. Because of something I did, I just had no clue what it was._

_ I stared at the broken weapons lying at Zeus' feet, their image burning into my mind. The weapons of the gods were supposed to be indestructible, or nearly, but these were shattered beyond repair. Just like the ones who used to wield them, immortals who were gone just the same._

_ "Cassandra McNova! You have heard the charges!" Zeus thundered, and I flinched but still did not raise my gaze. "Do you deny them?"_

_ "No Lord Zeus…" How could I? I didn't even understand what had happened or my part in it. I closed my eyes as Zeus stood and called for the vote, I could hear my heart racing in the seemingly endless silence that followed, and then even my closed eyes couldn't protect me from the nearly blinding flash._

I shot up in the bed, the scream ripping from my throat before I could stop it. I'd been having nightmares like that every night since the war ended, and I was starting to think it was getting to me. Actually, it was getting to me. Big time. I hardly slept anymore and I was losing weight because I was often too tired and upset to eat. I counted myself lucky that most everyone attributed my sudden lack of appetite to losing my sister.

My uncle burst into my room moments after I screamed. He was a big burly man with dark hair, ruddy skin, and kind brown eyes. He was my mother's brother and had raised me nearly as far back as I could remember. I only had vague memories of my mother, probably not all that surprising since she died in a car crash right before I turned six. He'd been raising me ever since.

"What's wrong?" He asked urgently, looking around my room like he expected to see a monster hiding behind the door or something. Okay, so that was a possibility, it had happened before. But only once and Sybelle and I had handled it just fine without his help.

"It was just a dream Uncle John… Nothing to worry about." I told him, even doing my best to summon a smile. "Only natural after last year right?" Anyone would have nightmares after losing a sister in a war you were on opposite sides of. Of course, that had nothing to do with why I was having nightmares. Bad dreams are pretty much par for the course when you're a half-blood, but why would I tell my uncle that? I suspected he knew more about my position than he admited.

"I guess… Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine Uncle John." I insisted, "I'm leaving for Camp this afternoon remember?" I had to fight to keep the smile in place as my stomach twisted at my words. I hadn't meant to mention my leaving, I didn't want to deal with the argument that always came when I mentioned camp to my uncle. Besides, I couldn't shake the feeling that something awful was going to happen when I got to camp, so his argument might actually work this year. As far I knew the only time he ever even acknowledged the gods existing was to argue against me going to camp.

Uncle John frowned slightly, then smiled. It looked rather forced, but he smiled none the less. "Yeah, I remember. I'm glad you're going back kiddo, it'll be good for you." He said, sounding very much as though he would like nothing more than to choke on the words; it made me wonder if someone had threatened him. My first time going to camp he packed our bags himself after a golden arrow streaked by him and imbedded itself deep in a tree. Five minutes before that he'd explained to Kinder, the satyr that had come to collect Linus, that there was no chance any of us would be going to camp. Ever.

He glanced out the window, where the sunrise was visible. "You should try to get some more sleep; your train doesn't leave till three. I'll be in the shop if you need me." Having said that he left me alone again, closing the door behind him. He would probably go downstairs to his workshop and work on one of his metal monstrosities that were selling for so much in world of modern art. I've never understood modern art.

I sighed as I got up, wishing I could take his advice; but there was never any going back to sleep after one those dreams. I'd undoubtedly nap later though, I couldn't avoid sleep forever and trying was starting to wear on my health. As I started shuffling slowly towards my bathroom my eyes fell on the piece of gold paper which had sat on my dresser since spring break, held down by a golden drachma. I had spent spring break at home, despite Chiron's invitation and my uncle's half-hearted urging, and Hermes had delivered the note from my father the following Monday.

The note was short reading simply 'You need only to ask'; the drachma currently weighing it down had come in the envelope with it. I wondered what my father meant by that cryptic note, and wished I could just ask him. But I was pretty sure randomly calling up a god to ask insolent questions would be something like suicide. And you never really knew what they'd count as an insolent question, so usually I found it safest not ask them anything. My eyes shifted to the mirror over the dresser as I thought about it, and couldn't help but see my sister staring back at me. The same hazel eyes, the same narrow nose, the same long strawberry-blonde hair…

Without fully realizing what I was doing, and without taking my eyes off the image, I snatched the heavy bronze paperweight off my desk and hurled it at the mirror. I stumbled back and sat back down on the bed when the glass shattered, just listening to the pounding of my heart and my uncle's feet as he came running back up the stairs to make sure I was okay. Just like he always did. I couldn't say the same about the gods, not even my father. They never answered when I asked for their help. So… Why hadn't I gone with my sister? Why did I fight for the gods when I couldn't even say why it mattered to me who won?

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**Author's Note:** _This mostly written to practice writing in first person, and of course no offense is meant to anyone. I'm also trying to keep on topic, while also remembering that she would have ADHD and dyslexia… I haven't needed to write about the dyslexia yet, but I'm still trying to keep it in mind._


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**Disclaimer: **_I have not magically obtained the publishing rights, sorry to disappoint (as if anyone is…)._

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_ I stood in the center of the throne room, determinedly staring at my feet. I didn't want to look at the furious gods who were waiting to pass judgment on me for my betrayal, however unintentional, of two of their number. I didn't want to see the faint pain etched into Hermes' features or the look of disgust from Ares. I couldn't bear the thought of Athena's cold scrutiny or the angry disappointment Dionysus was barely even trying to hide behind his customary look of boredom._

_ But more than anything, I couldn't bear the sight of the two empty thrones. It was bad enough I couldn't avoid looking at the broken weapons lying at Zeus' feet._

_ "Cassandra McNova! Have you nothing to say in your own defense?" Zeus thundered, and I flinched but still did not raise my gaze._

_ "No Lord Zeus…" There was no defense possible, I didn't even know what I was being accused of. I closed my eyes as Zeus stood and called for the vote, I could hear my heart racing in the seemingly endless silence that followed, and then even my closed eyes couldn't protect me from the nearly blinding flash._

I sat up in the bed and slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the scream that nearly broke loose. I bit my bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, but I managed to keep from making a sound, not wanting to wake up my half-siblings. While most of them were naturally early risers, they didn't tend to enjoy waking to up to the sound of screaming. Usually, something like that would result in finding out how many of us sleep with our bow beside our bed. By the way, a disturbing number of us do… So if you're ever thinking about visiting our cabin, wait till we wake up on our own.

There, that's the moral you can take away from this story; don't wake up the Apollo kids… Or for that matter, the Ares kids, they get grumpy when they don't get enough sleep. That advice could save your life, so remember it.

Once I calmed myself down a little I threw on some clothes, grabbed my bow out from under my bunk and slipped out of the cabin. I glanced towards the Big House, and for a moment I was tempted to tell Chiron about my dream. But no, the sky was just starting to turn grey with the first hint of sunrise, neither he nor Mr. D would appreciate being woken up at this hour over a stupid nightmare. So I started towards the archery range instead, walking along the edge of the woods to lessen the chances of being seen by the harpies.

I pretty much spent the next couple hours shooting arrows at a target and trying to forget that stupid dream. Normally I'm a pretty good shot, if I do say so myself, but that morning my arrows were all over the place. I tried to convince myself that it was just that I was still shaken up over the dream, but the truth was that my archery had been going downhill since Manhattan. I was even kicked off the school archery team, not that I intended to tell my siblings that unless they asked outright. If I was really being honest, and as a daughter of the god of truth I didn't have much choice, I knew what the real problem was. Every time I let an arrow fly, whether or not I hit the target, I heard the sound of an arrow burying itself in flesh as far too many had during the war.

I was so focused on my thoughts and trying to get over my new issues with archery that I didn't even notice my half-brother until another arrow knocked my arrow off course. I spun to face him, with an arrow already nocked. You'd think he'd know better than to sneak up on people, demigods tend to be very jumpy. Who wouldn't be with all the monsters that come after us? Luckily for him I realized who it was before I released the arrow.

"What do you want Justin?" I asked, lowering my bow slightly and relaxing a little. Justin wasn't so bad, a little too nosey and he spent way too much time around Joker… But okay, except that at that moment I just wanted to be left alone for once.

Instead of answering Justin walked up beside me and took aim, at my target no less. Jerk. It was bad enough he was a better shot, did he have to show off even more? Wasn't knocking my arrow off course enough for one day?

"What was the nightmare about?" He asked, releasing the arrow at the bottom of the exhale. His arrow hit dead center of the bulls-eye; typical.

"Who says I had a nightmare?" I aimed my own arrow, just so I didn't have to look at him while I avoided his question. I was off on the release though; the arrow flew just as I started inhaling. It hit just outside the bulls-eye. "One snicker and you're eating that bow." I said, partially so that he wouldn't comment on my flinch even if he'd noticed it… I hoped he hadn't noticed; what kind of Apollo kid can't handle archery? Seriously; cruel joke much?

"Violent this morning…" Justin muttered, smirking. "Definitely had a nightmare. What was it about?"

"None of your business." I muttered, walking towards the target to retrieve my arrows. It was past time for breakfast to start anyway and surely I could lose him in the two dozen or so other kids at our table… I forgot how stubborn he was. He kept pestering me about the dream all the way to the dining pavilion…

"Can the Hermes cabin even hold that many kids?" I asked; stopping in shock, there must have been sixty kids hovering around table eleven, most of them waiting for someone to get up so someone else could eat breakfast. I mentioned it because I really was shocked at how many were there, the fact that it changed the subject was just a happy bonus.

"No." Came the irritated answer. Yay, Joker had joined us. How nice. At least he didn't know about the dream so he couldn't pester me about it. "Most of us are currently sleeping in tents set up behind the cabin. I can't wait until they figure out what they're going to do about the minor gods' cabins…"

"When you say 'us'…" I started, pausing as the three of us automatically moved out of the way for the Aphrodite Cabin "Do you mean the cabin or-"

"I mean the actual children of Hermes." Joker, answered with a scowl. Speaking of cruel jokes his real name was Joe Ko which I personally thought was probably a sign of what his mother thought of him. "Along with a good number of the others, they have got to figure something out before our cabin explodes."

"Um… Joker?" Justin hesitated, like he was trying to figure out how to say something. "You've been sleeping in a tent since March, and most of your cabin has to wait for their turn for breakfast… I think it's too late for that, your cabin has already exploded." Both Justin and Joker were year-round campers, I didn't know what the story was for Joker. But Justin once mentioned that his mom was a druggie and he'd been perfectly happy to come to camp after he was found by a satyr when he was eleven. To my knowledge he hadn't really left camp since, unless you counted going into Manhattan to fight a war as leaving.

Joker groaned, as he walked with us towards our table he probably didn't expect to get his turn for awhile or he wouldn't have done it. The boy loves eating more than he does breathing, how he stays so lanky I'll never know. Nor will I ever forgive him for it… "I know… We've been praying to dad to help us out for months, but it doesn't seem to be doing any good, and with summer here there's bound to be even more kids coming in!" he complained.

"Have you tried Hera? Or Zeus?" Justin asked, grabbing a seat at our table. I sat across from him, and then remembered that I had been planning on sitting where he couldn't talk to me about that dream. I shrugged; I figured he was well distracted from it by then anyway.

"Why?" Joker questioned, standing nearby. He couldn't sit at our table, it was against the rules. I thought they were stupid rules, but they were stupid rules that were strictly enforced by a god, so I never argued. Besides, it meant that I didn't have to deal with Joker during meal times… usually.

"Hello! King and Queen of the gods! If they can't help straighten this out, there isn't help to be had." I said, catching on to Justin's thought. Maybe it wasn't so bad having him around, he reminded me of my brother sometimes. Crap that made me sad and lonely again.

Joker blinked, "Why didn't I think of that?" he asked. But before either of us could answer him he was called back over to his own table, someone had gotten up and it was his turn to eat. It was a shame; I had a pretty good retort ready too… I let it go, I was bound to get a chance to insult his intelligence later the Hermes kids couldn't seem to go a day without doing something stupid, and Joker usually managed to drag Justin into it too. To make matters worse he was probably biggest kleptomaniac at camp, at least the other Hermes kids remembered what they stole when and from whom. He stole as a nervous habbit and almost never noticed when he did it. I figured it was bound to get him killed someday.

After I finished getting my breakfast I walked over to the fire, I dropped a juicy strawberry in for Apollo and then selected a really nice big chunk of cantaloupe and dropped it in with a quick prayer to Hera; _Please Lady Hera, help them figure something out for the minor gods' cabins. I don't think the Hermes cabin can take this much longer… _I didn't expect praying to work, not really. I figured they would ignore us even if we got the whole camp in on it.

Justin and I mentioned the idea of praying to Zeus and Hera for help with the issue of the children of the minor gods to the rest of our cabin, and they assured us that they would help spread the word. By lunch I think most cabins had at least a few campers offering to two gods… Most of us were starting to feel really bad for the Hermes guys, and after last year… Let's just say the whole camp was closer than it was a few years ago. Besides, we'd all been in there at one point or another so it was probably the only cabin we'd unite to help. Much like our parents, we rarely agree on anything for more than five minutes.

For the most part the rest of our day was uneventful. Justin pretty much forgot to bug me about my nightmare, thank you Joker, glad to know you're good for something other than stealing random items; and I reminded Joker that stealing my stuff was a bad idea by hitting over the head with my quiver. So he stole some Demeter guy's watch instead, got caught, and ran for his life…

While Justin tried to help Joker smooth thing over with the Demeter kid, I hung out with a guy I had met in my hometown over spring break. The guy's name was Ben, he was a half-blood, obviously, and he was probably the only guy I'd ever met who could make me blush, it was a shame he was probably my half-brother. He hadn't been claimed yet though, so he was one of the many kids staying in the Hermes cabin. He was pretty cool, but he had weird eyes. They were almost too bright, but otherwise he seemed about as normal any other half-blood. He asked a lot of questions about camp, I tried to answer as many as I could but frankly, he was asking about a lot of stuff that I'd never really cared about. He wandered off back towards cabin eleven after we made plans to meet up again later.

It was a pretty typical day at camp, or as typical as it gets at camp. I slipped off to take a nap after lunch and after waking up from the nightmare again I had to deal with Justin and Will pestering me about it. Obviously I'd slept longer than I'd intended if they were coming to look for me, Will was probably pissed I'd skipped archery practice but I guess screaming yourself awake after a nightmare gets you out of that lecture… And signs you up for a whole new one. Will finally decided to leave me alone when Annabeth called him over to help with some new camper that fell off the climbing wall. Justin however, stuck with me and refused to let himself be distracted; I blamed Chiron for spending so much time teaching us how to handle the ADHD in everyday life… Now it vanished whenever it would actually be useful to someone.

Eventually, I told Justin about my plans to meet up with Ben. That finally had the desired effect, and he stopped bugging me about my dream and started bugging me about Ben. He didn't seem to agree with me that Ben was likely one of our brothers that just hadn't been claimed yet.

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**Author's Note: **_Yes, I took out the prophecy; don't worry, I'm replacing it with another later in the story. _


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Disclaimer:** _Unfortunately… No, I don't own it. Sorry_.

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_ I stood in a swamp, with the sounds of a battle surrounding me. But Sybelle and I seemed oddly unaffected by it; again she looked different than I knew she should. She should have looked just like me, but she didn't and I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong…_

_ "What are they fighting over?" I asked her, realizing that despite the fact that we were both dressed for battle I had no idea what the fight was about, or indeed even who was fighting. Sybelle shook her head._

_ "It doesn't matter… Why did you stay Cassie?" She asked._

_ "Of course it matters…" I replied, looking around. I couldn't see the battle but somehow I knew our siblings were out there fighting. "We should be helping them…"_

_ "You can't help if you don't know the answer Cassie." Sybelle pressed, "Why didn't you come with me when I left camp? Why did you fight for them?"_

_ "I- I don't-" Everything changed then, Sybelle faded out and I was in the throne room again waiting for the gods to decide my fate. _

_ I heard their muttering but kept my gaze on my feet. I heard Hermes say something along the lines that I was innocent since I was tricked, Dionysus agreed with him, saying that I had tried to correct the matter as best I could and that I'd had no way to know what would happen when I answered a few questions. I might have been surprised at this if I weren't so confused overall._

_ Athena and Ares agreed on something for once, saying that I should have seen the questions as odd and realized that I might have been dealing with a spy. I wondered what questions they were talking about._

_ "Silence!" Zeus thundered, putting an end to the arguing. I gulped but the fear was only there for a few moments before a comforting numbness seeped through me… I risked a glance up at Dionysus, who flicked a quick, pity filled glance at me before looking back at his father. For the first time I wondered what it must be like for him at camp, being so close to us day and night, and having to watch each of us die… How could he stand it?_

_ "Cassandra McNova, do you have anything to say in your own defense?" He asked, his voice compelling me to look up at him. His face was a mask of cold rage._

_ "No Lord Zeus…" I said softly, lowering my gaze again. Any defense would anger him further, even if there was one that could be made. I closed my eyes, but opened them again when he called for the vote. Seven who thought I should die, Poseidon, Hermes and Dionysus were abstaining. When a fiercely frowning Zeus called for the vote for my life, there were two who thought I should be allowed to live. Poseidon was still abstaining._

_ Zeus didn't seem quite satisfied, but I guess he realized that even without his brother's vote there was still a definite majority. "The council has spoken." I closed my eyes again, "You, Cassandra McNova, have been sentenced to death." Even with my eyes closed the flash was blinding, and the blessing from Dionysus didn't stop me from feeling this._

I spent the time between our cabin wakeup call and breakfast trapped in the cabin while Leslie played with my hair. I think Will put her up to it cause as soon as the boys left to work in some early morning archery practice Leslie and Carol started talking about dreams. It was an absolutely transparent ploy to get me to tell them what was bothering me, in hindsight I probably should have told them. I'm not sure what good it would have done but then at least someone would have known what was wrong.

But I just sat there while Leslie put my hair up in a simple French braid, the end trailing low on my back. I never did figure out why I let her do that but it seemed to make her happy. I didn't say anything about my own dreams though I did tease Carol about her killer rice crispies dream. But to be fair, that dream was weird even by our standards. The girl has some serious cereal issues.

When we were finally ready, we were just (barely) in time for breakfast, Leslie took forever to get dressed and fix her own hair after she finished mine. I saw Justin and Harold with their arms slung around Ben's shoulders. I was just close enough to hear what they were saying.

"You break her heart," Harold started

"We break your face." Justin finished, neither of my brothers lost their smile in the exchange, though Ben looked more than a little nervous. Understandably, they weren't exactly expressing a comforting sentiment. He should have been flattered, or maybe I should have been, we don't often let people outside of the cabin know how violent we can be unless it's very important.

"Oh cut it out you two, he's probably our brother." I snapped, brushing by them on my way to meet the rest of our siblings at the dining pavilion. I caught Ben's insulted look out of the corner of my eye but didn't really pay any attention to it. I probably should have, but then again, I'd have probably attributed it to the boys threatening him.

That day didn't even start out normal, not that any day at camp is exactly normal… But there is a certain routine to it. It's easy to follow the routine once you figure out what it is that year, which usually took me about two weeks. This year, Hermes almost always showed up just after lunch to complain that his kids weren't sleeping in his cabin anymore. Not that Dionysus could do much about it either, I was pretty sure Hermes just did it to make sure his kids knew he was on their side. Rumor was that the whole Luke thing had kind of traumatized him. I was sure he'd get over it soon.

But that day was different; not only did he show up at breakfast, he wasn't there to yell at Mr. D. Turns out Hera and Zeus were getting tired of all the prayers about getting the cabin situation dealt with and had called an emergency meeting of all gods and goddesses. Also known as, we won… Sort of. It was a start anyway. I guess you should never under estimate the power of nearly three-hundred kids all asking the same people for the same thing. We had pretty much the whole camp in on it by the time that announcement was made, and fully intended to keep it up until they actually found a solution. It probably got very annoying for them, which was kind of the plan: to overwhelm them with respectful begging.

Table eleven was especially happy to hear the news; they even gave it a standing ovation. Or maybe it just looked like it because most of the cabin was standing already… They'd swelled to just over a hundred kids by this point. It made me really grateful that Apollo had claimed me after only a couple days at camp, rather the weeks, months, or years some of the other campers had suffered.

Of course, with no godly supervision, and the hunters coming for the duration since Artemis was required to go to the meeting too for some odd reason; the camp was chaos for the next several days and there were no real signs of anyone calming down. It kind of answered the question as to why Zeus put a god in charge of the camp to begin with. About four nights in I decided to go for a walk sometime around midnight, I wasn't worried about the cleaning harpies since some of the Ares campers had dusted them a couple nights before. Like I said, without Mr. D there to scare us into obedience, it was complete chaos.

I actually wasn't out doing anything that was, strictly speaking, against the rules; other than being out at all. I was pretty much just avoiding going to bed. I thought I saw the Stolls, along with a couple of their siblings and maybe one or two of mine, breaking into the forge... But that was the Hephaestus cabin's problem; I didn't have anything in there. In fact, the only thing I'd ever had forged were the twin daggers disguised as hair pins I wore in my braid. I couldn't actually use both daggers at once, but I figured if I had two, I was covered for when I lost the first one. I suck at close combat, so it invariably happened. No matter who I was paired up with, I always lost the first dagger, usually the second too right before losing the fight.

I quickly lost interest in watching the petty larceny and continued on my walk, eventually working my way towards the big house with half an idea of turning them in to get back at them for stealing my jewelry box the day before… Sure, I got it back after a little bribery, but it was the principle of the thing. That plan was ruined when Chiron galloped off towards the, now flaming, canoe lake. Well, the lake wasn't on fire, but the canoes were. And judging by the noise, the would-be burglars got caught by the Hephaestus cabin anyway. My revenge would just have to wait.

While I tried to figure out another way to get revenge I noticed some strange movement near the big house. After looking around and realizing that everyone else was either causing trouble or fiercely defending their possessions, some were somehow managing to do both, I realized I was the only one that noticed so I would have to check it out on my own. I didn't really mind, I figured it was probably Rachel escaping the big house to join the fun. That wasn't really the best idea she could have had, but she'd never struck me as being that bright. Hey, I have to be respectful to her because she works for my dad, I don't have to like her.

Moving as quietly as possible now, I turned my back to the lake and unstrapped my bow from my quiver. I nocked an arrow as I moved towards the movement, just because she was dad's oracle didn't mean I couldn't pull a small prank to teach her a lesson about sneaking around camp. She had to know by then how paranoid most of us were, and if she didn't then what I was planning technically be counted as a life-saving lesson. I kept the arrow pointed at the ground while I walked, it wouldn't do to really shoot her. His kid or not, Apollo would kill me for that.

I gasped when I saw three people, two girls and a guy, the guy carrying an unconscious oracle. My first thought was that some campers were planning on playing a prank on her, which, as a daughter of Apollo, I couldn't allow. Not one that required moving her while she was unconscious anyway, pretty much anything up to that point probably would have been fine. But that thought went out the proverbial window anyway when the two girls pulled daggers and stepped towards me. Thankfully, my ADHD came in handy at times like that. I had one arrow ready, three of them, and one oracle I couldn't risk hitting… The three of them were not campers but were obviously half-bloods since they got past the border… And most of camp was awake which meant more campers ready for battle, but also a lot more noise to get in the way of calling for help…

Great, a completely useless assessment of the situation… I'd been spending way too much time with Ben. That boy wondered about the weirdest things… And I'm talking weird even for a half-blood. Who cares about the top speed of a centaur?

I took the chance and shouted for my cabin mates as I fired the arrow at the first girl to run at me, it hit her in the shoulder. Her yell added to mine should have attracted some attention, even with all that noise, right? I could only hope. I reached for more arrows, but before my fingers could close around the shafts someone came up behind me and my vision exploded with stars…

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**Author's Note**: _Yay! Another chapter done! I know the dreams are rather long, and I'm trying to make sure that the 'real' portions of the chapters are just as long or longer in at least most of the chapters. Which means long chapters! (Yay?) _


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**Disclaimer: **_Checked my pockets again, and again all I found was my car keys, pocket knife, and another penny… No PJO, and it would just be weird to find the Olympians in there. I do enjoy finding pennies though._

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_"Sybelle! Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!" I said, running up to my sister. "Linus? What's going on?" I stopped dead when I saw our big brother with her. They looked about the same age now…_

_ Sybelle opened her mouth, but I couldn't hear what she said. The world went gray and all I could hear was the sound of a wind I couldn't feel rushing by._

_ Then I was in the throne room again, standing in front of Zeus. "The council has spoken." Someone objected. But they were a moment too late; the flash was already filling my vision._

When I opened my eyes it was dark, but that couldn't be right, my body told me it was around noon. I whimpered a little, much to my embarrassment. Pride is another thing that comes with being a half-blood… Even if we aren't proud of our heritage, we tend to have more than our share of personal pride; which makes whimpering in pain a humiliating experience. I heard a train whistle and a soft chugging sound... It still took me a minute to realize that we were on a train, even with the sensation of moving, but I blamed that on the headache which had made me whimper to begin with.

"Oh thank the gods, you're awake."

I knew that voice… Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the Oracle. Crap, now I remembered what happened. Now I just had to figure out what happened after they put me down for a nap, where we were exactly, and how to get us out... No problem right? Maybe not for a child of Athena, who would probably have had a plan ready in case this ever happened to them. But personally I was better at memorizing poetry than thinking up battle strategies; I'd always left that to the children of the war gods.

"Unfortunately…" I groaned. I tried sitting, only to realize that I was tied up. Great, I was not only in a dark confined space; I was tied up on top of it… Can you say panic? Yes? Good for you!

Okay, so while I was trying not to panic, Rachel decided twenty questions would be a lovely game to play… At least she was asking the questions so I didn't have to worry about her randomly spouting off a prophecy about our impending doom. If she'd started that I probably would have panicked.

"Do you know where we are?"

"No, I just woke up." I was trying to get the ropes off, with no success.

"What do they want with us?"

"They probably don't want _us_ Miss Oracle of Delphi." I thought about the hairpins, and decided that having my hands tied to my feet sucked. If I could have reached the base of my braid I could have just cut the ropes.

Rachel was quiet for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes, "They'll send someone after us right?" she asked, "Even without a prophecy?"

I paused, to my knowledge no quest had ever been undertaken without a prophecy… Not since the camp was founded anyway. But I couldn't tell her that. "You're my father's oracle; at the very least someone from my cabin will try to come, with or without permission. You're the best connection we have to him." I told her instead, "The only connection…" I added in a mutter as I went back to trying to get the rope off my wrists, I was sure I had to be giving myself some serious rope burns but that was unavoidable.

"Are you mad about that?"

I sighed, and couldn't suppress the rueful smile. I had sounded bitter, and just like Sybelle. "He is who he is, that's hardly going to change." I said with a shrug that she probably couldn't see. I didn't think it was any of her business what I thought about who he was, no matter that she was his oracle. Maybe that even made it less her business.

After that we fell into an almost comfortable silence, about as comfortable as it could be since we barely knew each other and were both tied up being taken who knew where by someone who probably didn't have our best interests at heart. All in all, it wasn't that comfortable.

I finally felt the ropes loosen ever so slightly, not that I had any idea what I was going to do once I got them off. Usually, I left the planning to the Athena kids, I was happy to just follow orders and stay out of the way of the people who knew what was going on. That worked for me, and was such a simple plan; stay out the way, and don't die. If I had stuck to it last night, I wouldn't be in this mess now; but no, I had to try to help. Stupid sense of duty.

I let out a hissing breath as I tried to loosen the ropes more, it really was getting quite painful.

"Are you okay?" Rachel asked, she actually sounded worried, which surprised me a little. But then again, she was mortal, not a goddess or something. She had every reason to care if I lived; after all, I was her best chance of getting out of this alive. Too bad for her, I wasn't even sure I could get me out of this alive.

"Peachy…" I muttered, "I'd be better if I could get these ropes off though." I added, dropping the sarcasm.

"Yeah…"

At that moment the door to our little prison opened, letting in enough light to effectively blind us. When my eyes adjusted to the light, probably more quickly than Rachel since my father was the god of light, I saw a golden haired girl coming towards us. She was dressed simply, like an average camper out in the world; exactly like we dress at camp only in a different shirt. There may not a whole lot of style in the outfit, but not only do we blend in, it also affords full range of motion. That's something you have to consider when a hellhound could come after you at any moment.

"Oh good, you're both awake!" she said cheerfully. She was very pretty, and there was something sinisterly familiar about the way her eyes flashed… But I shook my head and tried to focus, her eyes didn't matter nearly as much as the dagger at her belt. If I could get my hands on that we'd be out of here in a flash… I just needed a plan. Why couldn't I have been a child of Athena, or even Ares? Anyone except the God of frickin poetry?

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**Author's Note:** _Well, that's a fairly short I guess… Sorry. The next one should be longer, and I'll post it as soon as I decide if it should be from her point of view or Apollo's, or maybe even Justin's…_


	5. Chapter 4

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I own nothing of interest at this point in my life, unless you have an unusually strong love of owls… In that case you would probably find my collection of figurines fascinating._

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_ I was following my sister; I couldn't see exactly where we were or where we were going. It was dark, and we surrounded by stone walls with roots sticking through in places. The roots made me feel like I was underground and I didn't like that feeling._

_ "Sybelle-"_

_ "Sh!" Sybelle said, turning back to me for a moment. It was then that I noticed that her eyes were just a touch too bright, her skin a shade too pale. "Listen…" she whispered. I was too shocked to say anything right away and simply followed her. I knew then that I was dreaming, and simply counted myself lucky that I wasn't having the one about the trial again…Yet. My dreams had a tendency to switch topics without warning._

_ I was about to ask her what was going on when she stopped, and turned to me again… "Listen…" she repeated, so quietly I wasn't entirely certain she'd actually said it and it wasn't just in my head. Well, it was but you know what I mean. She gestured for me to look around the corner just a little further down the corridor. "Be careful Cassie, don't let them see you…" I heard her whisper as I passed her._

_ I peeked around the corner, trying not to make a sound._

_ "You're too permissive with that boy, you know we can't let the girl live." A woman spoke; she was beautiful with platinum blonde hair and silvery-gray eyes. Her eyes were the same shape as those of the man beside her though his were a golden brown a shade darker than his golden hair, and flashed dangerously at the woman's words._

_ "I am not too permissive, if she won't join us then we'll kill her. We lose nothing in giving him a chance to persuade her. From what he said she's regretting her choice to fight for them to begin with." He said, turning away from the sword he was sharpening to face the women. "If he's right we'd have an advantage, you know how he's always been about his children. He'd be heartbroken over another betrayal."_

_ "And if she doesn't turn? As long as even a single child stands with him we can't destroy him."_

_ "I know! If she doesn't turn he'll be just as heartbroken over her death…" He said, turning back to the sword. "You know how Apollo is about his children…"_

I snapped awake, my heart pounding. And my sister voice echoing in my head; _Listen…_ So I did, and hearing nothing started working on loosening the ropes that bound my hands to my feet. I'd tried to get the dagger off of that bimbo that brought some water in for us. I spilled the water when I knocked her down, so my throat felt like sandpaper, and I hadn't managed to get that dagger. So all in all it was a waste of time. Good thing no one ever accused me of being an Athena kid.

"Cassie?" Rachel's voice made my frown deepen, I couldn't even figure out how to get myself out of this, and I had to figure out how to get a stupid mortal girl out too. Preferably without either of us dying.

"Shut up!" I snapped at her, the continued darkness and the renewed pain in my wrists combining to make me even more irritable than normal. I felt bad about it almost instantly, but the Apollo cabin never apologizes. That's one of three things we just don't do unless our lives depend on it, and often not even then. We don't side against the Hermes cabin, we don't intentionally hurt each other, and we don't apologize. Well, we'd side against the Hermes cabin if by some miracle our cabins were heading the teams for capture the flag. But I don't know anyone who can remember the last time that happened.

"Sorry…" The sound was barely a whisper but it made me feel bad. She was probably even more scared than I was… And unlike me she'd had no training on how to survive a situation like this. I was just having trouble remembering those lessons. I probably should have paid more attention rather than worrying about how to beat Justin in our cabin's weekly target contests.

Since I couldn't bring myself to apologize, I blamed her for the whole situation so I told myself I shouldn't feel bad about snapping at her, I started to softly sing the lullaby I could faintly remember my mother singing to me. I changed some of the words to fit the circumstances though, I wasn't her mother and she was older than I was. I guess with the way I changed it the song took on a slightly mocking tone, but what do you expect, I was only fourteen and had already been through Hades… Figuratively speaking of course, I hadn't actually been to the underworld yet. I was really hoping not to go at all until I took that irrevocable ferry ride.

While I sang I kept working on the ropes binding my hands and feet, I actually found that the lullaby was working to distract me too, I didn't seem to feel the rope biting into my skin as much. I could have cried when I finally slipped a hand loose and could work on the rest of the knots with my fingers. But instead I kept the song going steady, just in case anyone was outside listening.

Suddenly I had both hands free and attacked the knots on my feet one of my hairpin-daggers. Before I knew it I nearly had the knots around my feet loose; it was going much faster now that my hands were free. As I continued to sing it occurred to me how long it had been since I prayed with any faith that someone was listening… I'd only been going through the motions of believing in the gods' mercy ever since Sybelle left. The realization made me feel kind of like a hypocrite. That was when my ADD took over and started me wondering where that term came from and whether or not it had the same root as the Hippocratic Oath that doctors had to take… It wasn't a thought that inspired confidence in modern medicine.

It was a good thing I knew the tune by heart and wasn't unused to substituting lyrics on the fly, I was barely thinking about the song anymore while I crawled over to Rachel and started cutting the ropes that held her. When I heard her take in a breath like she was about to say something I put my hand over her mouth, I didn't feel like listening to what she thought about the song and since we were in the middle of, hopefully, escaping I had a good excuse for wanting her to keep quiet. I saw no reason why she should ever find out that it was just I didn't like her and preferred keeping her silent if I had to associate with her.

Once I was sure she'd stay quiet a few minutes I let her go and put my dagger away so I could work my way to one wall of the car, once there I started looking for a door on some sort. I could feel the train slowing down so I figured we had maybe a couple miles before the girl would come back to check on us. If I could find the door and get it open I thought that maybe with the train slowing down we could jump for it and the train would be miles down the road before they could get fully stopped even if they saw us jump.

I found the door fairly quickly; it was a small cabin so there was only so much room to look. It didn't take me long to get the door open, the Hermes kids aren't the only ones that can pop a lock… They could probably have done it without breaking the lock, but I wasn't worried about hiding how we got out, just when. I turned and gestured Rachel over, maybe she wasn't as stupid as I thought because she instantly knew what I was thinking.

"Oh, you can't be-" She never finished her complaint; I pushed her out of the train. As I jumped out after her I realized that if we lived through this then I would not only have gotten to push the oracle out of a moving train, but it would likely be considered a heroic action. Even if we didn't live through it, I still got to push the oracle out of a moving train… Maybe being kidnapped wasn't so bad after all.

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**Author's Note:** _I was going to put the lyrics to the song Cassie sung, but I thought they distracted from the story a little. Anyway, if anyone cares she sang a slightly altered version of 'Crying for the World'._


End file.
